Democratic Transitions in the Arab World

Ibrahim Elbadawi is Director of the Macroeconomics Research and Forecasting Department at the Dubai Economic Council and Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. Until recently, he was Lead Economist at the Development Research Group of The World Bank. Samir Makdisi is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. He is the co-editor (with Ibrahim Elbadawi) of Democracy in the Arab World: Explaining the Deficit (2011), and has contributed numerous articles and chapters on the subject.

• Introduction Ibrahim Elbadawi and Samir Makdisi; Part I. Conceptual and Cross-Country Perspectives: 1. Explaining democratic transitions in the Arab world Ibrahim Elbadawi and Samir Makdisi; 2. Overcoming induced insecurities: stabilising Arab democracies after the Spring Abdelwahab El-Affendi; Part II. Case Studies: Successful, Protracted and Painful Transitions: 3. Tunisia: the prospects for democratic consolidation Mongi Boughzala and Saoussen Ben Romdhane; 4. Egypt: the protracted transition from authoritarianism to democracy and social justice Noha El Mikawy, Mohamed Mohieddin and Sarah El Ashmaouy; 5. Syria: the painful transition towards democracy Raed Safadi and Simon Neaime; 6. Kuwaiti democracy: elusive or resilient? Ibrahim Elbadawi and Atif Kubursi; 7. Lebanon: sectarian consociationalism and the transition to a fully fledged democracy Samir Makdisi and Youssef El Khalil; 8. Sudan: transition to democracy after 2011, a dismembered state navigating uncertainties Atta Elbattahani; Part III. Concluding Observations: 9. Resistance to and prospects for democracy Ibrahim Elbadawi and Samir Makdisi.

'The book provides ample amounts of data and thorough economic analyses which caters to the cross-country study of the relationship between democracy and the Arab world in general and with respect to specific countries like Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait and Sudan. The volume combines plenty of primary data from various countries within a convincing analytical and quantitative approach.' Zeba Khan, Democratization